Ben Dupuy: 'U.S. behind Haiti repression'
By G. Dunkel
Ben Dupuy spent 22 years in the United States opposing the
Duvalier dictatorship that, he stressed to Workers World, "by
and large depended on the United States." Some years ago he
moved back to Haiti, where he is secretary general of the
National Popular Party and co-director of the newspaper
Haïti-Progrès.
Dupuy was a plenary speaker at the June 1 emergency anti-war
conference in New York. He also participated in a workshop on
"Fighting Corporate Globalization and U.S. Economic
Intervention" at the ANSWER coalition event.
Dupuy told Workers World: "The United States wants to
control Haiti, just like the rest of Latin America. It preaches
the kind of democracy that will allow the local government to
sell its neo-liberal policies. But when the people stand up, it
supports their repression."
He said the targets in this latest wave of repression are
peasants who have been driven to the wall.
He talked about the struggle of orange-grove workers in
St-Raphaël, in the north of Haiti. They want a contract
from the transnational company Cointreau.
Goons reportedly hired by local landlords attacked a
workers' protest May 27, killing two. Two journalists covering
the demonstration were badly beaten, then thrown in jail along
with five demonstrators. One of the journalists was from
Haïti-Progrès.
No charges have been filed against any of these prisoners.
They haven't seen a judge. This is a blatant violation of
Haitian law, which gives the cops 48 hours to bring prisoners
before a judge. What's worse is that the journalists haven't
gotten the medical care they need for their serious
injuries.
"Since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed to implement
the U.S. program in order to get back into power," Dupuy
continued, "and to align himself with the old regime and its
supporters--the big landlords--he lets this kind of repression
go on."
The U.S. establishment, which raised a big stink about
Haitian election laws that it claimed kept candidates it
supported from winning, has been silent about the attacks on
the orange workers.
Reprinted from the June 13, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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